I'll get right to it! Life with Kayla is always a joy no matter WHAT is going on. It is saddening when she is having a hard time. For most of February and March we tried to help our miserable baby. Here were her symptoms:
Lack of sleep - She got to the point that she would only sleep a maximum of 3 hours of sleep a night and MAYBE an hour at a time during the day. She was being startled awake constantly and when trying to get her to sleep it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1-2 hours. Most the time I had to nurse her to sleep while lying down so I didn't have to move her.
Odd feedings- After we visited the ER about 2 months ago I changed my feeding methods from timed feedings to demand feedings. She was fussy enough that I thought maybe she needed more to eat. At the beginning of March I went more natural and started feeding on a relaxed timed schedule. That seemed to help but was not solving the problems.
Overall crankiness - We were to the point that we had to be standing, bouncing up and down, and holding her at almost all times. We ate in shifts so one of us could always be holding her. She was either always eating, sleeping in our arms, or crying.
Poor little thing.
So we had her four month appointment about 10 days ago and that changed everything. She is in the 75th percentile for height (24.75 in). 50th percentile for head circumference, and then they weighed her. She had gained only 6 oz since her 2 month apt and was weighing in at 11.4oz and was in the 10th percentile if not lower!! I knew she was a little thin but we thought it was just because she was long and lean! Kayla's pediatrician was very concerned so I explained what we had been experiencing the past 6 weeks.
She immediately asked if I knew how much Kayla was eating. I thought she was getting at least 5 oz per feeding! The doctor asked me to pump before each feeding so I could gage how much Kayla was eating. To my horror she was only getting 1.2 to 2 oz per feeding! No wonder she has been so miserable! She has been so hungry this entire time!
As soon as we returned home from her appointment, I pumped and fed her some formula and she ate 7oz!! Instantly she as happier, more playful, she is laughing more, smiling more, and we can put her on the floor to play and she loves it! I have never been able to wrap her up and just put her to bed. I had to ALWAYS rock her to sleep and now we can just lay her down and most the time she can sooth herself to sleep. What an immediate change we experienced.
Since then she has been a milk monster! For whatever reason my milk production did not increase as she has grown so she was use to being satisfied but not full! I am still pumping to help my milk increase (I am now pumping 3-4oz per feeding) and then supplementing with formula if she needs more.
I felt horrid when I found out that this whole time she has just been hungry! We were thinking that maybe her reflux was just really bad or maybe she had a milk allergy or that she had colic! It was nice to know that there was a more simple solution.
We had a followup appointment this last Thursday (a week after her 4 month apt.) and she has gained a whole pound! So she is now in the 25th percentile. Much better but she still has a way to go. She is sleeping much better and is only waking up once a night which I hope we can get her to sleep through the night here soon.
All is well though because we are doing 10 times better than we were 2 weeks ago! It is a huge blessing. Thank goodness for doctors. We have our little girl back. She plays lots more now, sleeps better, and is overall much happier!
Hard lesson learned but I am glad we figured it out!
She LOVES watching March Madness!
The first feeding after we found out she was so hungry. The hands went up and held her own bottle!
Our happy little girl is back!
She is such a trooper - 4 month shots!
